Sunflower, Daisy, Bluebell, Lily
by Rasiaa
Summary: The shed shouldn't be so scary, right? Lily's been in there thousands of times. Still, something's different now. There are footprints next to the door, and that's the last thing she sees before everything goes black. DISCONTINUED on this website. Further chapters can be found on AO3. Same username.


_Inspired by the Trick or Treat Challenge and Competition: Potters, Lily Luna._

_Bear with me on this. I hope to get chapters out within a decent time frame, but anyone who's followed me for any length of time knows that's a nice dream. It's a horror fic, so keep that in mind while reading. It'll be more explicit, probably, over on ao3. My username is the same. (I must say, I didn't plan a multi-chap. Let's hope I know where it's going.)_

_The title will make sense, I promise._

* * *

Boredom becomes overwhelming when she realizes that she's been steadily sliding a needle under her skin. Slowly, she pulls it out and watches the blood with detached interest.

"Great Godric, what's wrong with you?"

Lily looks over her shoulder to find her brother Allie on his way over. She frowns. They never talk unless they're forced to - what he could want is beyond her imagining.

He sits next to her, completely unconcerned with the water that stains his jeans as his feet hit a puddle. The snow has been melting over the last several hours, but she knows from the Muggle weather reports that it's going to storm again tonight or tomorrow morning. It's been an early winter this year; this is the third major snow storm in as many weeks, and it's barely November.

"What do you want?" she asks, making an effort not to snap. Although their relationship is significantly better now than when they were teenagers, it sometimes is all too easy to slip back to their old ways.

"I can't just want to see my sister?" he asks. Her frown deepens, eyes narrowing.

"No. You've never wanted to see me."

"Ouch," he says, but makes no effort to deny it. "Mum says she wants to take the patio furniture inside so it doesn't get damaged by the storm. She's enlisted our assistance. She has lemonade and cookies for an incentive." He waves his hand dismissively, rolling his eyes. "I'd rather have money, but whatever."

"You make plenty of money," Lily says, scoffing. "And can't she put a cloth over it or something? Repair it if it gets hurt?"

"Apparently that's too much work."

She sighs and stands, wincing at the water seeping through her clothing. There's a small smirk of amusement on Allie's face when she looks at him, but it disappears under a mask of indifference as quickly as it arrived.

This is why she doesn't like him. Slytherin through and through.

And maybe that's prejudiced, and hypocrisy, since Dominique is a Slytherin but everyone likes her. But Dom doesn't act like Allie - aloof, distant, concealed, competitive to the point of damaging.

"Fine, fine, whatever," Lily says, wiping the small amount of blood onto her jacket and sliding the pin into her pocket. It's something Allie had given her this past Christmas, actually; it's an amazingly thoughtful gift. She's always had a soft spot for Lhasa Apso dogs, and this pin also has _diamonds_.

It must've cost a fortune.

"Come on, then," she says, turning and heading inside.

She walks right into the chaos she'd tried to escape. With Teddy and Victoire's daughter on the loose, that would cause enough of a ruckus, but on top of that Uncle George has been slipping new potions into drinks and Fred and Louis are in on it. Gran has about lost her damn mind.

"James has been unhooking all the lights and whatnot," Allie says from behind her; she jumps. There's no concealing the smirk on his face this time. She wants to hit him.

Instead she does the mature thing and scowls before walking to the back door, where all the Halloween decor is being removed to be replaced with Christmas stuff come December first. It'll be the fourth year she's helping with it; some part of her longs to go back to Hogwarts and its extravagance, but then she can remember her final year there and the Makeup Disaster of the Century with her three best friends and suddenly she's fine where she is, obnoxious family or no.

Adelaide, the five year old demon from Victoire and Teddy, rushes up to her. She's got a cloak on like it's a cape and somehow she found frankly alarming pig ears on a headband. "Lily!"

"Addie," she says, with far less enthusiasm. Her distaste for children under the age of ten is well known throughout her family, with the exception of the only child under the age of ten.

Allie, the traitor, slips passed her and into the yard while the demon starts describing the candy phoenix that Granddad - meaning Bill, not Lily's Grandpa Arthur - had made for her, and Lily is stuck nodding along like she gives a damn.

"Here," a voice says behind her, quiet and amused. Lily glances over to find her Uncle Bill, much to her relief. "Come here, sweetheart. Lily's busy."

"Granddad!" the demon yelps in delight, holding her arms up. Bill lifts her and settles her on his hip, nodding to Lily's immediate family in the yard.

"I think your father is about to have another row with Allie, so I'd step in if I were you," Bill says.

"Let them fight; see if I can muster enough energy to give a damn," Lily responds tiredly, energy draining the longer she watches the pandemonium around her.

"Don't be like that," Bill says, exasperated. "Great Merlin, you've been a real downer lately. What's going on?"

Lily shakes her head quickly. "Nothing, nothing. Everything's just grand."

Bill looks dubious. "You sure?"

"Yeah," Lily agrees, then reaches for the demon's hand, which was about to yank Bill's earring out of his head. "That's not for you," she tells the demon.

The demon looks put out. Bill just rolls his eyes. "Come on, Addie, I think there's more candy inside," he says.

"I pity Teddy and Vic," Lily says, watching the demon's face light up.

"That's what grandparents are for," Bill says, shrugging. "It'll be payback for all the heart attacks those two gave me with their misadventures."

"Something tells me they won't see it that way," she answers, laughing slightly. She can see Teddy come around the corner to get in line of sight with Bill's back and his daughter, and his face falls with dismay. Bill is renowned for making children a nightmare for a few days as long as he gets a hold on them.

Bill just winks and turns around, paying his son-in-law no mind as he tries to get the demon. The demon just laughs.

"You coming, Sunflower?"

Lily sighs. She turns to head back to the yard, finding her parents' and her brothers' eyes on her.

The grass is wet under her feet, and not for the first time, she regrets wearing her suede boots. The stains will be horrendous, and even the promise of _Repairo_ isn't enough to make the sadness go away.

Her mother hands her keys as soon as she's close enough. "Go unlock the shed, won't you? Make sure nothing's in the way."

"Yes, Mum," she says, taking the huge key ring with resignation. James and Allie start arguing so Ginny turns away, likely not noticing Lily's mood. She would've said something otherwise.

She tunes out the shouting as she walks to the shed on the other side of the yard, too used to it after twenty two years.

It takes her five solid minutes to locate the correct key. She has no idea what the rest of them are even for. Still, the door opens easily enough. She flicks on the light switch.

The hair on her neck stands straight up, and her heart begins to race.

She pulls her wand out of her boot, venturing inside carefully.

She's been in this shed thousands of times. She knows it inside and out; the brooms are kept in the cupboard in the corner, the other Quidditch equipment next to it. There are a lot of shelves along one wall, all of them bearing the weight of dozens of knickknacks collected over decades. A few of her dad's Muggle contraptions are under the shelves.

Nothing immediately amiss. Nothing out of place. Still...

There are footprints in the dust next to the door.

It's the last thing she registers before pain explodes behind her eyes and everything goes black.

...

"Wake up!"

Lily blearily opens her eyes.

The ceiling above her isn't one she recognizes, nor does she know the anxious woman hovering over her.

"Oh, thank god," another voice says. "We thought you were dead."

She's never met a witch or wizard that says, "Thank god." Muggles, then, and the accent isn't from England.

She rolls her head to the side, blinking spots from her sight. The other woman is chained to the floor, dressed in Muggle clothes, the kind that Lily has only ever seen on television.

"They said you were a special one," the first woman says, guiding Lily into an upright position. "Valuable."

"I would hope so," she rasps. "My father's a bloody noble."

Not exactly true, but not a lie either. Her family is on the scale of the Malfoys, anyway. Rich. The type to be listened to.

"Where are we?"

"God only knows," the second woman says, irritated. "I -"

"Oh, good," another voice says, and Lily looks to the door, which has a very bright light coming from it, making the woman unclear. "We can get started, now."


End file.
